【正文】 m e much warm er. In the val l eys col ourful butterfl ies flew around us and we saw m any yaks and sheep eating gren grass. At thi s poi nt we had to change our caps, coats, gl oves and trousers for Tshi rts and shorts. In the early eveni ng we al ways stop to m ake cam put up our tent and then we eat. After supper Wang Wei put her head down on her pi l ow and went to sleep but I stayed awake. At mi dni ght the sky became clearer and the stars grew bri ghter. It was so qui et. There was alm ost no wi nd—onl y the fl ames of our fire for pany. As I l ay beneath the stars I thought about how far we had already travel ed. We wil reach Dali in Yunnan Provi nce soon, where our cousi ns Dao Wei and Yu H ang wil joi n us. We can hardly wait to see them! PART 6 TH E END OF OUR JOUNEY Cam bodi a was i n many ways sim il ar to Laos, al though i t has twice the popul ation. At another i nn, we tal ked wi th a teacher who told us that hal f of the peopl e in her country couldn’t read or write. H er village couldn’t even afford to build a school, so she had to teach outside under a large tent. When we sai d godbye, we al felt very l ucky to have studi ed in col lege. Back on the road, we passed between many hi l s and forests. Then we cam e to the pl ai ns and entered Phnom Penh, the capi tal of Cambodi a. In m any ways i t l ooked li ke Vi entiane and Ho Chi Minh City。t。in a box to keep warm. Every morning, Murray got out of bed at five o’clock and worked several hours before breakfast. Often he woul d work by the candle li ght i nto the eveni ng. Murray hoped to fi ni sh the new dicti onary i n ten years. But after fi ve years, he was sti l addi ng words for the l eter A! then others went to work wi th Muray, incl udi ng hi s two daughters. H e worked on the di cti onary unti l he was very old. Fortyfour years l ater, i n1928, other editors finished i t. It i ncluded m ore than 15, 000 pages i n twel ve books. And you thought your di cti onary was bi g! Uni t 3 JO URNEY DOWN THE M EKONG PART 1 THE DREAM AND THE PLAN My name i s Wang Kun. Ever si nce mi ddl e school, m y si ster Wang Wei and I have dream ed about taking a great bi ke tri p. Two years ago she bought an expensi ve m ountai n bi ke and then she persuaded me to buy one. Last year, she vi si ted our cousins, Dao Wei and Yu H ang at their col ege i n Kunm ing. They are Dai and grew up i n western Yunnan Provi nce near the Lancang Ri ver, the Chi nese part of the river that is cal l ed the Mekong River i n other countri es. Wang Wei soon got them i nterested i n cycli ng too. After graduating from col ege. we final l y got the chance to take a bike tri p. I asked my sister, Where are we going? It was m y si ster who fi rst had the i dea to cycle al ong the enti re Mekong Ri ver from where it begi ns to where i t ends. N ow she i s pl anning our schedul e for the tri p. I am fond of m y si ster but she has one serious shorti ng. She can be real y stubborn. Al though she didn39。t know the best way of getti ng to pl aces, she i nsi sted that she anize the trip properl y. Now, I know that the proper way is al ways her way. I kept aski ng her, When are we leavi ng and when are we i ng back? I asked her whether she had l ooked at a m ap yet. Of course, she hadn39。 m y si ster doesn39。 i t al so had wi de streets wi th tres i n rows and ol d French houses. Unl ike Vienti ane, shi ps coul d travel the Mekong Ri ver the center of the city we visited the pal ace and a beauti ful white el ephant. It can onl y be sen outsi de the palace on speci al days. We ate an earl y supper and went to se a great tem pl e wi th fl oors m ade of sli ver. The next m orni ng our group sl ept l ate. We were very ti red from the long bi ke ri de the day before. Cycli ng i n the hil ls had been diffcuil ow our coui ns had the chance to m ake jokes about Wangwei and m e. Perhaps,they said,they were the strong ones!We had lunch at a ni ce outdoor cafe, then rode out of the ci ty. Two days later we crossed the border into Vi etnam. We began to see m any m ore people,but I wasn’t surprised . I read in an atlas before our trip that Vietnam has almost seven times the populati on of Cam bodi a. We m et a farm er who gave us directions and tol d us that he grows a new ri ce crop four tim es every year so he can feed m ore peopl e al so told us that the northern part of hi s country has many m ountai ns and it i s m uch cool er than here in the south, where it i s fl at. Al though the fl at delta made it easi er for us to cycl e. we got warm very qui ckl y. So we drank l ots of water and ate lots of bananas. Son the delta separated into ni ne smal er rivers. Two days l ater, after we had pased thousands of rice fields, we cam e to the sea. We were ti red but al so i n hi gh spi ri ts:our dream to cycl e along the Mekong Ri ver had fi nal y e true. Uni t 4 A NIGH T TH E EARTH DID’T SLEEP Strange things were hapeni ng i n the countri si de of northest HeBei. For there days the water in the vi l age wel ls rose and fel l, rose and fel .Farmers noti ced that the wel wal ls had deep cracks i n them. A sm el y gas cam e out of the cracks. In the farm eryards, the chickens and even the pigs were too nervous to i ce ran out of the fiel ds l oki ng for places to jumped out of thei r bowls and ponds. At about 3: 00am on July 28,1976, som e peopl e saw bri ght l ights i n the sky. The sound of the pl anes could be heard outside the ci ty, who thought l ittl e of these events, were asleep as usual that ni ght. At3: 42 am everythi ng began to seemed as if the world was at an end!El even kil om etres di rectl y bel ow the ci ty the greast earthquake of 20th century had begun. It was felt i n Bei ji ng, whi ch i s m ore thantwo hundred kil ometres away. O nethi rd of the nati on fel t i t . A huge crack that was ei ght ki lometres long and thi rty metres wi de cut across houses, roads and burst from hol es i n th